Category: County Durham

f my wanders around the forest, I had walked this path many a time and just happened to glance to my right this one time to see this small amount of water cascading over the edge, so decided I would come back when the conditions were right for capturing it. Thing with waterfalls is they are either a small trickle due to lack of water or a massive torrent due to heavy amounts of rain. So I have been watching how much rain we have been having lately, so it rained last night again so I thought there would be a good chance that it would be flowing nicely, not a torrent but a nice steady flow that would make for a good composition and a pleasing image, and I was not disappointed. I visited another waterfall in the forest that is quite well hidden which I have photographed before which was only a small trickle last time and this was flowing nicely as well. Only down side was I found out I had a split in my Muck Boots Wellies so ended up with a very wet foot, but a small price to pay for getting the image.

It was Autumn the trees sing in all colors, and a perfect time to get a good image of High Force waterfall, from above as we had been having quite a bit of rain so I knew the thunderous High Force would be exploding over the top making for a magnificent view. So an early start was required to get there before the sun became to high and and effected the light. It is not a long walk but it can be a difficult walk when you have medical conditions so I always allow extra time for more stops on the route to rest. But I have to say it was worth the walk, as when i viewed High Force from above all the fatigue and tiredness disappeared and was replaced by excitement at the wonderous autumn colors and and the power of the water coming over the fall.

I was also inspired by Light, a new camera technology that just hit the market and their #VantagePoint project.

There is nothing more pleasing than growing your produce in an allotment all that hard work that you put in during the early months of the year preparing the ground and planting your produce, and hoping what you plant will grow and when it does reaping the benefit of fresh veg through the summer months and not just veg, planted fruit bushes that produce huge amounts of gooseberries and blackberries to make those crumbles and pies to eat with ice cream on a hot summers day, or to freeze to make pies and crumbles for those cold winter days as you eat them reminding you of the summer days when they were picked. And an allotment would be no good without somewhere to sit as you admire the fruits of your labour bursting out of the ground.

The day was grey as the fine drops of misty rain fell, finding some shelter down by Blackling Hole Waterfall in Hamsterley Forest as the roar of the water comes crashing over the top to foam and and dance at the bottom before flowing away down stream gentle and calm.

Escomb is situated two miles west of Bishop Auckland in the Wear Valley. The church was built around 675 AD with stone probably from the Roman Fort at Binchester. It was originally thought that the church was an offshoot of one of the local monasteries eg Whitby or Hartlepool but this is only one of several possibilities as there are no known records for the period.

I have wanted to visit the church at Escomb in Bishop Auckland for sometime now, it is only fifteen minutes from where I live give or take a few minutes but something else always came up so I saved a slot on Monday morning to go and visit the church. To gain access to the grounds of the church you have to go to a house where the keys are hanging outside to let yourself into the grounds and into the church, unfortunately I did not have time to photograph inside the church as a group of school children were expected at any time so I will be going back in the very near future to take some internal image.

Out looking for autumn colours but unfortunately they are not out in their full range of colours yet, some places showing a beautiful array of colour but others still hanging onto the greens of summer very reluctant to let the colour green fade and turn into the beautiful autumn colours that we enjoy at this time of year. So here is an image of Harthope Burn, in St Johns Chapel taken the other day when out looking for the colours of autumn as the water runs fast after a night of rain and the autumn colours elude me. For Know.